Hello George,
Your post sounds like an ad in the back of High Times magazine.
I think it's great you found Jesus and it works for you But
I have read the book of Mormon and
Having Native American blood, Mormonism has always perplexed me.
Mormonism in a Nutshell
Mormonism teaches that God used to be a man on another world and
that he became a god by following the laws and ordinances of his god on
his home world. He brought his wife to this world, a woman he had
married on the other world. She is, essentially a goddess.
In his present god-state, he rules our world. He has a body of
flesh and bones. Since god and his wife are both exalted persons, they
each possess physical bodies. In their exalted states as deities, they
produce spirit children that grow and mature in the spiritual realm. The
first spirit born was Jesus. Afterwards Lucifer was born along with the
rest of us. So, Mormonism teaches that we all pre-existed in the spirit
realm having been produced from the union of god and his goddess wife.
Therefore, we all existed in spirit form before coming down and entering
the bodies of human babies that are being born on earth. During this
'compression' into the infant state, the memories of their pre-existence
is 'veiled.'
God the father, who is called Elohim, was concerned for the future
salvation of the people on earth. In the heavenly realm, the Father had
a plan for the salvation of the world. Jesus endorsed the Father's plan.
Lucifer did not. Lucifer became jealous and rebelled. In his rebellion
he convinced a large portion of the spirits existing in heaven to side
with him and oppose god. God being more powerful then they, cursed these
rebellious spirits to become demons. They can never be born in human
bodies.
The remaining spirits sided with God. Since they chose the better
way, when it comes time for them to live on earth, they have the
privilege of being born in races and locations that are relative to
their condition and choice made in the spirit realm.1
In the Mormon plan of salvation there needed to be a savior:
Jesus. But Jesus was a spirit in heaven. For him to be born on earth,
Brigham Young the second prophet of the Mormon church said that instead
of letting any other man do it, God the Father did it with Mary. He said
that the birth of our savior was as natural as the birth of our parents.
Essentially, what this means is that Brigham Young taught that god the
father came down and had relations with Mary, his spirit daughter, to
produce the body of Jesus. Though many Mormons will not entertain such
incestuous thoughts about God and Mary, this is what Brigham Young
taught and as far as we know, this has not been denied by the Mormon
church.
Nevertheless, Jesus was born, got married, and had children.2 He
died on the cross and paid for sins -- but not on the cross only.
According to Mormonism, the atonement of Christ was not only on the
cross. It began in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went to the
cross.
In Mormonism, men and women have the potential of becoming gods.
President Lorenzo Snow said, "As god once was, man is. As God is, man
may become." In order to reach this exalted state of godhood, a person
must first become a good Mormon, pay a full ten percent tithe to the
Mormon church, follow various laws and ordinances of the church, and be
found worthy. At this point, they receive a temple recommend whereupon,
the Mormon is allowed to enter their sacred temples in order to go
through set of secret rituals: baptism for the dead, celestial
marriage, and various oaths of secrecy and commitment. Additionally,
four secret handshakes are taught so the believing Mormon, upon entering
the third level of Mormon heaven, can shake hands with god in a certain
pattern. This celestial ritual is for the purpose of permitting entrance
into the highest level of heaven.3 For those who achieve this highest of
heavens, exaltation to godhood awaits them. Then, he or she, will be
permitted to have his or her own planet and be the god of his own world
and the Mormon system will be expanded to other planets.
Mormonism's History
Mormonism began with Joseph Smith Jr. who was born on Dec. 23,
1805, in Vermont. He was the fourth child of Lucy and Joseph Smith.
Joseph senior was known as a money digger and sought after buried
treasure, particularly that of Captain Kidd. His mother was highly
superstitious.
Joseph Smith Jr. stated that he was disturbed by all the different
denominations of Christianity and wondered which was true. In 1820, when
he was 14, he went into the woods to pray concerning this and allegedly
God the Father and Jesus appeared to him and told him not to join any of
the denominational churches.
Three years later, on Sept. 21, 1823, when he was 17 years old, an
angel called Moroni, who was supposed to be the son of Mormon, the
leader of the people called the Nephites who had lived in the Americas,
appeared to him and told him that he had been chosen to translate the
book of Mormon which was compiled by Moroni's father around the 4th
century. The book was written on golden plates hidden near where Joseph
was then living in Palmyra, New York. Joseph Smith said that on Sept.
22, 1827 he received the plates and the angel Moroni instructed him to
begin the translation process. The translation was finally published in
1830 as the Book of Mormon. Joseph claimed that during this translation
process, John the Baptist appeared to him and ordained him to accomplish
the divine work of restoring the true church by preaching the true
gospel which, allegedly, had been lost from the earth.
The Book of Mormon is supposed to be the account of people who
came from the Middle-East to the Americas. It covers the period of about
600 B.C. to 400 A.D. It tells of the Jaredites, people from the Tower of
Babel who came to central America but perished because of their own
immorality. It also describes some Jews who fled persecution in
Jerusalem and came to America led by a man called Nephi. The Jews
divided into two groups known as the Nephites and Lamanites who fought
each other. The Nephites were defeated in 428 A.D. The Lamanites
continued and are known as the American Indians. The Book of Mormon is
the account of the Nephite leader, Mormon, concerning their culture,
civilization, and appearance of Jesus to the Americas.
Critics claim that the Book of Mormon is incompatible with genetics.
Since the late 1990s and the work of Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza and
others, scientists have developed techniques to use genetic markers to
indicate the ethnic background and history of individual people. It has
thus become possible to directly compare genetic evidence of the ethnic
background of Native Americans with hypotheses of the origin of Book of
Mormon peoples. One hypothesis is that most or all Native Americans
descend from Book of Mormon peoples. Studies claim that Native Americans
have very distinctive DNA genetic markers inconsistent with this
hypothesis.
Critics claim that the Book of Mormon is incompatible with archaeology.
The Book of Mormon states that there were pre-Columbian peoples that
were white, literate, had knowledge of Old World languages, and
possessed Old World derived writing systems. (E.g. 1 Nephi 13:23 et.
seq.) They smelted metal and made tools and weapons of iron, steel, and
brass. (E.g. Ether 7:9, 10:23) They owned domesticated horses and cattle
(see Horses in the Book of Mormon). They possessed chariots. (E.g. Alma
18:9-12) The people covered the "entire land." Critics of the Book of
Mormon claim that the civilization described by these passages and
scores of others in the Book of Mormon should yield certain types of
discoveries in the pre-Columbian archaeological record.
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